Have you been waiting for the stars to align, to be in the perfect mood, or to get into the right headspace before you finally give yourself the permission to act on that creative project you've been dreaming about doing?
Let me tell you something -- the stars have finally aligned.
See, I've been dreaming about building my own website where all my work, my portfolio, and my writing can live.
Like an amalgamation of all my creative pursuits and passion.
But I kept putting it off.
Why?
Because the entrepreneur in me would ask, "Nash, is it going to generate revenue?"
And my thoughts would go...
You can always do that later.
That's not a priority right now.
There are more important things to think about.
What's the point of that?
And if I'm honest, this entrepreneur Nash is not wrong.
But here's the thing: is everything we're going to do just going to be driven by gains, revenue, external validation, recognition, and status now?
Whatever happened to doing art for art's sake?
Whatever happened to doing something because the doing itself is the reward? We technically call this autotelic - it means the reward in itself. It means not deriving the reward externally but internally.
Like if I go rock climbing, I don't need to "send" a route to feel good. The actual climbing and getting on the rock is already the reward in itself. The process is the reward and not the accomplishment of a desired outcome.
The Struggle
As someone who work in the field of human performance, I shouldn't be saying this but this is the truth.
I've been struggling to focus and get into deep work lately and it frustrates me.
I know what to do. I know how to setup my environment to make flow state inevitable. This is my field. And yet, here I am struggle the very overarching theme of my life - flow state and optimal performance.
Some of the reasons are obvious:
I just moved back to the country I used to live
I haven't built a routine and haven't found my groove yet - and I need that for deep work
I moved to a new place and I don't have a proper place where I can work
Moving from one cafe to another doesn't really help - it sometimes distract me because of the constant adjustment I have to do
Finding the right cafe to work out of is hard
I'm uninspired and unmotivated
The Aha Moment
It took a lot of unsuccessful experimentations before I got to this, but thank God we're back.
Here's what I realized
Drink coffee on my tiny balcony while starting blankly outside looking at the mountains
Brush my teeth and take shower
Do some sun salutation movements
Sit on my desks with some nice lighting to set the mood
Write my stream of consciousness in my journal just to let it all out, clear my head, get me to focus, and get started
Do something that doesn't require deep thinking but creative - like work on this website!
And voila! I'm in the zone.
Since it's too quiet in my room, on the right side I put on some youtube videos and bring the volume down because this helps me. Complete silence doesn't really help if I'm still trying to get in flow.
Working on this website gave me a sense of accomplishment which means I get a dopamine hit, which then triggers me to do something else afterwards because I'm on a high and ready to do harder things.
The Conclusion
So even though working on this website doesn't necessarily generate me any business nor revenue (and who reads blogs right now, anyway), it does lead me to a state where I can do the things that help my business.
It's a win.
And I'm hopeful that I can maintain this.
If you're still reading this, wow I'm impressed and humbled. Thanks for reading!
Would love to hear your thoughts!
Feel free to write me at nash@chasingflowstate.com.
I'll see you on the next one!
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